Block rating and block value. Valuable or not?

I ran naxx 25 last night, and i got several pieces of gear. A lot of that was shield block stuff that was kinda shoved onto me because I was the only tank that used a shield (I ran with 2 DK OTs).

That kinda got me thinking, is it even worth it? I've lurked a lot on the forums and I've always got the impression shield block isn't that great against bosses. My block value is about 1500 or so right now with the libram, and it just doesn't feel very substantial when bosses hit for 10k and i get overhealed 500-1k on a regular basis anyways.

Am I wrong or should I justified in feeling stamina or pure avoidance is more valueable than block value stuff?

The thing is, I don't quite understand what Fridmarr is saying about not going out of the way to stack BV/BR.

Let say I have avoidance boots, and block boots drop. Is it an upgrade? Do I take it? I'm having that dilemma right now and every time block stuff drop.

How much is block rating worth?

Should I rely on tankadin points? Should I look at effective health for 10k hits? Or what? I just don't seem to really grasp how to determine upgrades.

Sorry for the questions, I have mained a hunter and shadow priest for all of BC and upgrades were easy for them. Whatever increase my DPS is an upgrade. Maining a tankadin is quite a bit more challenging, having to juggle EH, avoidance, block cap, and mitigation.

It has both on it.

http://www.wowhead.com/?item=39717

in particular.

I'm using the wyrmrest revered boots atm and I definitely plan on upgrading to this pair once I get it enchanted and gemmed but all the other block stuff I picked up just makes me think.

I don't want to turn this into a WHAT GEAR SHOULD I GET/UPGRADE NEXT topic but for some context this is what I picked up:

http://www.wowhead.com/?item=40410
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=40279
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=39764

I'm not even sure if those are really upgrades. Feels a lot like sidegrades, but like what one of my raid leaders said, every little bit counts when I'm tanking and I definitely agree with that.

Lastly, I don't know about that, nate. BR > dodge/parry > BV? Maybe in terms of percentage but do you really feel that blocking 2% more for say 2k less is better than dodging/parrying 0.5% more for 0 damage? Say for a boss that hits for 10k, that's 8000 damage reduced compared to 10000. Obviously this varies with BV and the boss, and certainly smaller and more predictable hits are easier on you and the healers, but my point stands.

Fridmarr, that's exactly the line of thought I'm going down.

I don't feel like being block capped is anything significant. It's something nice to have, but not something I aim for.

I'd much rather have 45% avoidance and 35% block, totaling 80% than say 30% avoidance and 70% block. coming to 100%.

I just feel like avoidance is so much more powerful than block. And the point of this thread is to either confirm that idea or deny it with some numbers, and to see what other tankadins feel in regards to this issue.

I'm not favoring either block or avoidance in this post, however, I would like to put things into perspective.

The main thing that kills tanks is not so much overall damage taken, but spike damage.

It would seem as if avoidance would have the win overall, because it lowers total damage taken by a percentage. However, as we all know the RNG can fuck with us hardcore, and cause us to go through long strings of no dodges/parries/misses. But as an example, if you're getting hit by a boss 60% of the time for 10k damage, you're essentially taking 6k DPS.

Block, however, reduces your spike damage, for example, if you had 100% block, with no avoidance whatsoever (I know, not possible, but for this let's just say it is), and you have 2000 block value, you are reducing your damage spikes to nearly nonexistent. But, again, in this concept, you will also take more damage.

Overall, I think a good mix of the two will be the best, because both overall damage and spike damage can still be a problem. In addition, lowering the amount of spike damage that you take when you do end up taking it, will cause less wipes, and less grief. I like to stack defense, because it adds only slightly less avoidance than dodge, but also gives you some block, so it's overall block cap value is better than dodge and parry, while also giving you some good avoidance.
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If self esteem was mana, emos would be rogues.

Imho block capped is something you strive (spelling?) for once you hit the required amount of EH for a certain boss.

Every bit of BV and BR is benificial at that point because it makes you much more consistant in damage intake.

Because basically 3 out of 4 healing classes use some form of HoT (renew, lifebloom, earth shield, etc) having prodictable damage intake is incredibly usefull.

You will still take spikes because of accidents (mob in your back, stun, disarm, whatever) but because you take steady damage, recovering from such a streak is easy for the healers. I.e. one big heal to top you off and back to the normal HoT rotation.
Also not to forget is SA. If your damage intake is steady, your mana returns are steady too. This doesn't really matter in raids where you have plenty of mana most of the time, but doing heroics this is very nice. You can basically count on an average mana intake instead of having an avoidance streak and suddenly have to conserve mana.


This is why I like block rating. But like everyone on this forum will tell you, BR alone will not make a good tank. You still need fair amounts of avoidance.
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Sytaena

I have never really bought the argument that avoiding a hit and then taking a hit, constitutes spike damage. Spikes are caused by taking mutliple hits in a row, the odds of which drop dramatically as avoidance is increased. If I'm a few percentage under the cap because I pushed avoidance instead of block rating, I'm perfectly fine with that, and honestly I think I'm sturdier for it.
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http://armorylite.com/us/frostmane/fridmarr/

Hello, my name is Bregor and I am a blockaholic. Last night at Patchwerk(10) I blocked 260K dmg, or 36% of unavoided damage.
http://wowwebstats.com/zyd33g5s2iyv1?s=62700-74835&a=x25bfcf
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Bregor - Deathwing(EU) - 0/58/13

[chant]Hi Bregor![/chant]
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Sytaena